#2 All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone.

This Texas band plays instrumental music of huge ambition, built with a few simple ingredients: Mark Smith and Munaf Rayani's haiku-like guitar figures, spinning in stinging-treble tornadoes, then given then an explosive attitude by drummer Chris Hrasky and bass guitarist Michael James. But there is no watch-me soloing. Explosions in the Sky (who made real mark in Hollywood with their 2004 score for the film Friday Night Lights) are like the Kronos Quartet with big amps and John Bonham in the back, exploring the composed details in their music before blowing 'em up. "It's Natural to Be Afraid," the near-quarter-hour centerpiece of the band's first studio album in two years, opens with the guitars in a double dance anchored by a stern, repeated piano note while a bee swarm of distortion slowly overwhelms the mix. Later, Smith and Rayani emphasize the darkness in the song's title with galactic-folk sorrow, until Hrasky beats back the shadows with marching-snare dynamite. In this band, a real singer would just get in the way -- or get run over. Overall, if you tire of whining vocalist and seek serenity in music for the soul, Explosions is the answer for you.